Top Fed official: Bond portfolio could shrinkNEW YORK -- A top Federal Reserve official suggested Monday that the Fed will likely announce next month that it will begin paring its bond portfolio -- a step that could lead to slightly higher rates on mortgages and other loans. In an interview with The Associated Press, William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said he thinks the Fed has adequately prepared investors for a reduction in the portfolio, which swelled a...

Terror-related convicts awaitWASHINGTON -- Dozens of convicts serving time in U.S. prisons for terrorism-related offenses are due to be released in the next several years, raising the question of whether that's something Americans should fear. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has worked aggressively to foil attacks and imprison hundreds of people who joined or helped militant groups. Experts say less attention has been paid to what happens once those prisoner...

Doctor told to stop marketing baby techniqueU.S. regulators on Friday warned a New York fertility doctor to stop marketing an experimental procedure that uses DNA from three people -- a mother, a father and an egg donor -- to avoid certain genetic diseases. The doctor, John Zhang, used the technique to help a Jordanian couple have a baby boy last year. According to the Food and Drug Administration, Zhang said his companies wouldn't use the technology in the U.S. again without permission...

Big rise in number of active leak probesWASHINGTON -- Attorney General Jeff Sessions has pledged to clamp down in government leaks that he said undermine American security, taking an aggressive public stand after being called weak on the matter by President Donald Trump. The nation's top law enforcement official is citing no current investigations in which disclosures of information had jeopardized the country, but says the number of criminal leak probes had more than tripled in the...

Texas rice farmers hope for increased trade opportunitiesRAYWOOD — Ray Stoesser rumbled around his quiet green fields in a mud-caked SUV, noting the minute gradations of the land, which is subtly terraced to allow water to flow downhill, irrigating the fields in slow succession. "We're going uphill, believe it or not," Stoesser said. After more than a half century of farming, he knows what each field needs and when, harvest after harvest. "Just like taking care of your backyard," he said. The Housto...

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By LYDIA DePILLIS, Houston ChronicleThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Artist charged in death thought man hit on himNEW YORK -- A New York prosecutor said Thursday that a founding member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five stabbed a homeless man to death in Manhattan after he became enraged because he thought the man believed he was gay and was hitting on him, and he feared he would be robbed. Rapper Kidd Creole -- whose real name is Nathaniel Glover -- was returned to jail without bail by Judge Phyllis Chu on Thursday after an initial appearance in a...

Employer-based health coverage likely to stay awhileWASHINGTON — Get your insurance through your employer? The ongoing political turmoil around "Obamacare" all but guarantees you'll still be able to do that. Ask Walt Rowen, whose business is etching glass but whose experience managing century-old, family-owned Susquehanna Glass makes him something of an expert on health care. He's provided coverage to employees, then canceled it, steering them to the health insurance exchange. But with those pr...

Stocks move higher as employers add more jobs than expectedNEW YORK — U.S. stocks are rising Friday following a jobs report that was better than most experts expected. Bond prices fell and yields rose, which sent shares of banks and financial companies surging. Technology companies also climbed. Investors remained focused on corporate earnings. Weight Watchers climbed after reporting a strong quarter while Viacom, the media company that owns Comedy Central and MTV, sank. KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & ...

US gains 209K jobs, unemployment rate falls to 4.3 pct.WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added 209,000 jobs in July, a second straight month of robust gains that underscore the economy's vitality as it enters a ninth year of expansion. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.3 percent from 4.4 percent, matching a 16-year low first reached in May, the Labor Department said Friday. But growth in Americans' paychecks — a persistent weak spot since the recovery began in June 2009 — remains stubbornly slow. Avera...

AP: Juvenile life ruling affects some with parole optionBALTIMORE — A U.S. Supreme Court decision triggering new sentences for inmates serving mandatory life without parole for crimes committed as juveniles has had a far greater effect: The ruling is prompting lawyers to apply its fundamental logic — that it's cruel and unusual to lock teens up for life — to a larger population, those whose sentences include a parole provision but who stand little chance of getting out. The court in January 2016 ex...

Fox drops $100,000 to poke fun at The New York TimesNEW YORK -- Fox News Channel gave The New York Times more than $100,000 to poke fun at the newspaper. Fox ran a full-page advertisement in the Times on Thursday, blurbing a recent review in the newspaper that called the "Fox & Friends" morning show "the most powerful TV show in America." Television critic James Poniewozik's review wasn't exactly complimentary, as it traced the show's close relationship with the nation's tweeter-in-chief, Presi...

Marine dog gets a tearful farewellMUSKEGON, Mich. -- Hundreds of people in Michigan came together to say a tear-filled final goodbye to a cancer-stricken dog who served three tours in Afghanistan with the U.S. Marines. Cena the 10-year-old black Lab received a hero's farewell Wednesday before being euthanized at the USS LST 393, a museum ship in Muskegon, and carried off in a flag-draped coffin. Cena, who was recently diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, was a bomb-sniffer for...

Trucker in deadly smuggling operation to testify next monthSAN ANTONIO — A scheduled detention hearing for a truck driver charged in the deaths of 10 immigrants found inside his sweltering tractor-trailer in San Antonio has been canceled. Federal court records show the hearing for James Matthew Bradley Jr. that was originally set for Thursday was waived and a new hearing was set for Aug. 23, when Bradley is expected to a give video deposition. Bradley, 60, of Clearwater, Florida, faces charges of ille...

By a hair, Senate votes to debate GOP health care billWASHINGTON — With Vice President Mike Pence breaking a 50-50 tie, the Senate voted by a hair Tuesday to start debating Republican legislation to tear down much of the Obama health care law. The vote gives President Donald Trump and GOP leaders a crucial initial victory but launches a weeklong debate promising an uncertain final outcome. The 51-50 vote kept alive hopes of delivering on promises that countless Republican candidates have campaign...

McCain's return cheers fellow Republican senatorsWASHINGTON — Applause and whoops greeted Sen. John McCain, who is battling brain cancer, as he returned to the Capitol on Tuesday to vote for moving ahead on legislation to dismantle Obamacare The 80-year-old McCain had a visible scar above his left eye after doctors removed a blood clot earlier this month. Days after the surgery, the senator disclosed that he had a brain tumor and had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. "Stop li...

How smugglers use trucks with sometimes deadly resultsCHICAGO -- It could take months for investigators to determine what preceded the deaths of at least nine people found with dozens of ailing individuals in a tractor-trailer discovered outside a Walmart in San Antonio, Texas, in what authorities are calling an immigrant-smuggling attempt gone wrong. But previous cases of smugglers using similar trucks to move human cargo shed light on the dangerous method of human trafficking -- and how it can ...

No Russia collusion, Trump son-in-law Kushner tells CongressWASHINGTON — Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner denied Monday that he colluded with Russians in the course of President Donald Trump's White House bid and declared he has "nothing to hide." Behind closed doors, Kushner spoke to staff members of the Senate intelligence committee for nearly three hours at the Capitol, then made a brief public statement back at the White House. "Let me be very clear," he said. "I did not collude with Russia...

Burr-Hamilton? Angry lawmaker singles out 'female senators'WASHINGTON— Passions are running high on Capitol Hill — but pistols at 10 paces over health care? GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas is angry with some fellow Republicans in the Senate who are balking at parts of legislation to overturn "Obamacare." After GOP promises to repeal the law, that "is just repugnant to me," he says. Who's to blame? "Some of the people that are opposed to this, there are some female senators from the Northeast," Fare...

Promising 'A Better Deal,' Democrats try to rebrand partyBERRYVILLE, Va. — Promising "A Better Deal" for American workers, Democratic Party leaders rolled out a new agenda with a populist pitch on Monday as they sought to bounce back from their losses in November and look ahead to the 2018 midterms. They left the Beltway for small-town Berryville, Virginia, in an attempt to appeal to the working-class voters that Donald Trump appealed to last November and Democrats hope to win back. "Too many Americ...

Sanders steps into role as new face of White HouseWASHINGTON — New White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was schooled in hardscrabble politics — and down-home rhetoric — from a young age by her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Her way with a zinger — and her unshakable loyalty to an often unpredictable boss — are big reasons why she became a rising star in President Donald Trump's orbit. She'll take over for Sean Spicer, who abruptly announced Friday that he's resignin...

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By JONATHAN LEMIRE and CATHERINE LUCEY, Associated PressAssociated Press